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Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Short Stories: Madeline Miller and Saki

I am a short story fan. We've established this understanding over the years. I know a number of you are not, but I appreciate the fact that you continually humor me. ;)

So when my reading slowed a bit in October, I found myself diving into short stories. They're not much of a commitment and they allowed me to feel as if I was still making "progress." Whatever that means. I'm not reading for a promotion, I realize.

After I finished The Song of Achilles earlier this year, I purchased Madeline Miller's short story, "Galatea," since it had just come out. My relationship with this one has been rocky, first of all. By no fault of the story but totally because of the marketing. I downloaded this one from Barnes and Noble, where the website clearly says it's 100 pages long! Sweet!!! That's a novella! By Madeline Miller! For $2.99.

But stop. The actual document is 35 pages long. WHAT THE HELL. But the bigger WHAT THE HELL came when I started reading the thing and realized only about 16 pages of story is "Galatea" and the rest is SONG OF ACHILLES PREVIEW.

Frustrated was me. False advertising? YES.

And as for the story... it's just OK. Galatea is a gorgeous marble statue brought to life by her sculptor husband. He's begun to tire of her, their daughter is getting older, and daddio is sculpting her a new sister (or a really young lover for himself?). Needless to say, Galatea isn't happy with these implications and begins to hatch a plan. Decent story, but not worth $2.99 when I thought I was getting 100 pages of Miller's awesomeness.

Onward and upward...

Saki is a DUDE! Did you know? I think I knew this at some point, but then I got it in my head that Saki was indeed a lady. Surprise!

I was reading one of my long-time bloggy friends, Iliana from BookGirl's Nighstand, and she mentioned having read "Laura" by Saki recently. So, I did a bit of Googling, and I too read "Laura" by Saki!

You can, too. So basically there are these two women. Amanda who's very nice and Laura who is a vapid wench who happens to be dying. She seems to think she'll be reincarnated as some lower creature because of her distasteful attitudes in life. And she MAY be right. Because she dies, and then some funky things begin.

This is a super short, quick read, and I found the writing pleasant and the story delightfully creepy--but not in a traditional, ghostly way.